Direct enantiomeric separation of cathinone and one major metabolite on cellobiohydrolase (CBH-I) chiral stationary phase.

A direct, isocratic high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is described for the enantiomeric separation of racemic cathinone and one of its metabolites (+/-)-norephedrine, on a protein-based chiral stationary phase (CSP), cellobiohydrolase, known as CBH-I, under reversed-phase conditions. It was determined that the S-(-)-enantiomer eluted first for cathinone while the 1S,2R-(+)-enantiomer eluted first for norephedrine. The procedure is simple with no sample derivatization required and a short assay time.